Lettuce Sea Slug

[Whoyah]

The local LFS has a lettuce sea slug. I have read that they are big hair algae eaters and I am considering getting one to help out. Any opinions on them?

[Reptoreef]

they are super, however... they need to be fed(or removed once HA is gone), watch your powerheads and overflows, lastly... they are generally short lived.

[dakar]

Whoyah, what'd I tell you about cruising around in my head??? :lol:
Angel and I were actually looking at one today, but didn't know about the shorter life span, thanks Repto. So far we've managed to keep HA in check, actually it's pretty much non existant now, lawnmover blenny (aka Gumpy) has been doing his job, took him less than a week to clear the 55g of it all and he's so much more personable than a slug. Now he's taken to eating flake food daily for the better part of his diet. LB's get a big :thumbright: from me for algae control.

[Whoyah]

Duhh :scratch: , hadn't considered a lawnmower blenny. Sometimes I wonder if my brain is turned on. :lol:

True, a fish is much more interesting then a slug. They like flake food too hunh. Might need to buy one. Thanks :thumbleft: .

[Reptoreef]

Fox face/rabbit fish are excellent for HA, too... they are pretty spaztic, though.

[Whoyah]

I stopped at the LFS tonight and they actually have a Lawnmower blenny. :D Apparently ha has been there over two months and I have never noticed him. I guess he likes to hide under a rock and I just happen to see him out and about. Do they eat macro algae as well or just the small stuff? I think I will wait a few weeks to see how Dory is doing on the algae control before I buy the blenny.

[Reptoreef]

They are more of a scraper...combmouth... they'll eat meat products, though. Basically, they love the short trimmed HA, and micro algae coatings. It's kinda cool to see where they've eaten off the glass when you let the algae film grow a bit... looks like little puckered lips.

[carpenterwrasse]

I have an urchin inmy 75 that almost keeps my lr spotless I wish i had known how benefital they were sooner

[dakar]

I've wanted urchins for as long as the tank has been up, but I don't want to deal with them knocking stuff over on me all the time, we have a hard enough time to to keep eerything standing upright as it is now. Every time we (we means Angel) clear out LR from one area to clean or re-aquascape we find more frags living in a hole or something...great surprises, but not always so great for the critters.

[Reptoreef]

Urchins ARE the bulldozers of the sea!!!! Besides, they'll also devour coralline algae. I've still got mine, though... he's been a resident of the fuge for a few years now.

Repto

[Reef_Angel]

Dory is a great cleaner for you Whoyah, but she does it totally different than the lawnmower. We are so impressed with our Grumpy, we don't know if any other could replace him. Like Jason said:
It's kinda cool to see where they've eaten off the glass when you let the algae film grow a bit... looks like little puckered lips. We can't agree more, except we think it looks like he's been practicing kissing the mirror like young kids do before that first kiss! Every now and then we get graced with kiss marks on the front of the glass. You almost hate to magnet them off! He eats constantly and has a tummy to prove it and make you proud of him! He's so social that he will come show you when he's stuffed full too! :clapyell:

[carpenterwrasse]

are you talking about the lawnmower being social. and what/who is dory?